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Final Poli-Book Best Seller List for 2007

Our final best seller list for political books this year may provide some last-minute gift ideas for those of you with shopping still left to do.

Satirists occupy the first two positions. Stephen Colbert, et al, maintain their No. 1 position with “I Am America (And So Can You!).” Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe follow at No. 2 with “An Inconvenient Book.”

Patrick Buchanan is at No. 11 with “Day Of Reckoning.” The former presidential candidate and senior adviser to three presidents offers up his solutions to save America from all that he believes is breaking the country down.

“Lone Survivor” still hangs on at No. 6. Marcus Luttrell’s modern day narrative reminds us all about the brutality of war.

And former President Bill Clinton returns to the list at No. 10 with “Giving.” We’re guessing his high-profile campaigning for his spouse probably doesn’t hurt his book sales.

2. An Inconvenient Book, by Glenn Beck and Kevin Balfe. (Threshold Editions, $26.) The conservative TV and talk-radio host offers his solutions to problems including global warming, poverty and political correctness.

4. The Age Of Turbulence, by Alan Greenspan. (Penguin Press, $35.) A memoir by the longtime chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

5. The Nine, by Jeffrey Toobin. (Doubleday, $27.95.) A portrait of the Supreme Court since the Reagan administration focuses on the influence of its moderates.

6. Lone Survivor, by Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson. (Little, Brown, $24.99.) The only survivor of a Navy Seal operation in northern Afghanistan describes the battle, his comrades and his courageous escape.

7. The War, by Geoffrey C. Ward. (Knopf, $50.) A companion to the seven-part PBS documentary directed by Ken Burns, with hundreds of photographs.

8. American Creation, by Joseph J. Ellis. (Knopf, $26.95.) Triumphs and tragedies of the slow-building American Revolution.

9. My Grandfather’s Son, by Clarence Thomas. (Harper, $26.95.) A memoir from an associate justice of the Supreme Court.

10. Giving, by Bill Clinton. (Knopf, $24.95.) The former president describes people and projects that save lives and solve problems around the world.

11. Day Of Reckoning, by Patrick J. Buchanan. (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin’s, $25.95.) The syndicated columnist and former presidential candidate attacks free trade, illegal immigration and the idea that America should spread democracy around the world.

12. The Intellectual Devotional, American History, by David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim. (Modern Times/Rodale, $24.) A collection of daily readings about politics, literature, business and more.

13. The Coldest Winter, by David Halberstam. (Hyperion, $35.) A history of the Korean War from the author of “The Best and the Brightest,” who died earlier this year.

14. The Day Of Battle, by Rick Atkinson. (Holt, $35.) The American Army in Sicily and Italy, 1943-44; the second volume of the Liberation trilogy.

15. If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d Be Republicans, by Ann Coulter. (Crown Forum, $24.95.) A collection of the columnist’s provocative quotations, some from previous books and interviews, some new.

Rankings reflect aggregated sales for the weeks ending November 24 through December 15, 2007 at many thousands of venues where a wide range of general interest books are sold nationwide. These include hundreds of independent book retailers (statistically weighted to represent all such outlets nationwide); national, regional and local chains; online and multimedia entertainment retailers; university, gift, supermarket, discount, department stores and newsstands. An asterisk (*) indicates that a book’s sales are barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A dagger (†) indicates that some bookstores report receiving bulk orders. Expanded rankings are available on the Web: nytimes.com/books.

An autobiography that focuses on Biden’s political philosophy and record of leadership on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Robert Bork confirmation hearing. A well-written book that gives a compelling reason why this man should be our next president.

“Heroic Conservatism” by Michael Gerson

Written by President George W. Bush’s former speech writer, and now a columnist for the Washington Post. The subtitle of the book is, “Why Republicans Need to Embrace America’s Ideals”.

The author argues for compassionate conservatism and details how it was a winning message for the current president during his 2000 campaign. Explains the difference between the current Christian Right’s obsession with personal piety and what he sees as the real obligation of religion, which is to promote social justice. Details how the neo-cons and Washington insiders have sabotaged this message.

It’s a terrific read by a very skilled writer, and one that independents and conservatives will find interesting as this election cycle progresses.

I’m not even a big fan of books, and I bought Colbert’s book. How could you not? I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As for it being a “waste” of money, I can only say that similar to college tuition, nobody pays full price for hardcover books. Walk into a Borders or a B&N and it’s an automatic 30% discount, more if you’re in their clubs. The discounts usually run 40% on Amazon. So yea, paying full price is a waste. But buying the books themselves, not a waste at all.

I searched this list in vain for the memoirs and retrospectives by George Tenet, Tyler Drumheller and others who leave no doubt that by January 2003 George Bush’s weapons beliefs, not to mention the accuracy of the intelligence upon which those beliefs were predicated, had become irrelevant to the internal as opposed to the public case for war.

The general presumption that Mr. Bush’s weapons beliefs actually mattered to the believer-in-chief himself represents the Iraq war’s linchpin myth.

Today, no legislator contends they would knowingly vote to disarm Saddam of irrelevant weapons he ain’t got.

Only our deluded Vice President continues to insist that – sans weapons and minus links – we’d have invaded anyway.

Because the weapons didn’t really matter, we effectively DID invade anyway.

Congress, of course, never authorized invading anyway.

Indeed, as Senator Clinton has pointed out, invading anyway would never even have come up for a vote.

Former CIA analyst Drumheller says Iraq represents not an intelligence failure but a policy failure.

Out at Langley, it seems, they don’t define success the same way as the rest of us.

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